a700hitter

Wakefield has apparently said that he would like to play next season and pursue Clemen's record. He's not going to make it easy on management. Players are always the last ones to know when their tanks are empty. The Sox have to put sentimentality aside. It's the right thing to do for the organization and the right thing for Wakefield. He'll just continue to embarrass himself if he pitches in 2012. Timmy, read the poll results in every New England paper, wake the hell up. You're done.

He's been very effective against left handed pitching. He has helped the Tigers a lot since they acquired him.

His ERA is 5+. I don't think the bats are the problem. It's time to go in a different direction. He's got nothing left in the tank. He can't get his pitches down in the zone anymore. He's a sitting duck up in the zone. Look at the guy's #'s. He's fallen off the cliff in the last few years.

128 Edit: i spelled some wrong. 131 if I could spell.

As a coach?

Sometimes you just need to man up and take responsibility, like Papelbon did late in the season. He didn't look to deflect any blame . In 1978, Yaz made no excuses. He said the Gossage beat him. He didn't bring up that he hit a HR off Guidry and an RBI single against Gossage- two of the toughest pitchers in the game. Buckner never manned up like that. He always said that it wasn't "the key play of the World Series". Well, how can that be? I've seen the play 10,000 times. He also said that it was a minor miscalculation. What? Even if there had been other bad plays leading up to that play, Buckner was still the goat of that series. There were several opportunities for the Sox to put away that Series, and many of them had to do with Buckner. I think he still holds the record for LOB in a World Series. Until game 7, I think Buckner had 3, maybe 4, base hits. I think he had a hit or 2 in game 7. Overall, my recollection is that he hit something like .188 (.143 after 6 games). The Mets were loading the bases to pitch to him. If there were less than 2 outs, he would hit into a DP. If he had just gotten 1 or 2 hits in those situations, the Series would have been blown wide open. He didn't and he never acknowledged that he had had a truly horrendous series. He was justifiably the goat, and fans like me didn't like that he never acknowledged the part that he played. He should not have been harassed in his personal life, but he was the goat of the Series without question.

Tebow is in for the Broncos

i've discussed that both the Tiger and the Rangers made some very key valuable acquisitions at the trading deadline. Similarly the Brewers and the cards made key acquisitions. Brewers: KRod and Jerry Hairston Cards: Edwin Jackson, Dotel, and Furcal The remaining four teams reinforced their rosters. It's no accident that they are where they are.

First they lost Delmon Young and now Mags. The Tigers have an uphill battle.

I don't suspect Ellsbury. I'm just using him as an example that we could suspect lots of people. As for Ortiz's "return to dominance", he had a monster year against righties in 2010, much better than he did in 2011. In 2010, he in fact had a very strong overall year. In 2011, he made an adjustment to take lefties the other way. I don't think PED's help you do that. His power output stayed at the same, and it went down significantly against righties. I don't think PED's would help you against lefties but hurt your performance against righties. That just doesn't make sense. The fact is that once Ortiz got over his wrist injury, he has remained a big force since June 2009. You can suspect, but I think you are way off base. I posted in this forum in May of 2009 that Ortiz still had bat speed and that his obit was premature. Look at his overall stats from June 2009, not his splits, and you will see that he has been a very consistent offensive force since then. 2011 was not such a big bounce back season. He made adjustments to keep himself from becoming a platoon player, but those adjustments actually hurt his performance against righties.

Agreed. Finally, common ground.

This poll is still open. The results are lopsided, and I think they could get more lopsided. Wakefield should not have been wearing a major league uniform in 2010 or 2011. Stupid sentimentality got the best of the FO, and it is emblematic of the fact that the FO has lost its edge in the last few years. In their early years, the FO had no sentimentality at all. They let heroes like Pedro and Trot walk, and they were right to do so. They traded Nomar when they saw that he was slipping. No one was a bigger fan favorite than Nomar, but again they were right. Wakefield was never a huge fan favorite, but he started to get close to certain milestones so they kept him for sentimental reasons plus he was cheap. Sentimentality is a bad thing in a competitive sport like baseball. It doesn't matter if the guy is cheap or expensive. Wake was clearly not major league worthy for the last two seasons. The FO got soft and sentimental, and that is always the wrong decision. Maybe Theo will get his edge back in Chicago.

Sizemore and Granderson have had 20+ HR power since they hit the majors. They didn't go from being a 9 HR guy to 30 HRs over night. Granderson's jump to 40 can be explained by the Yankee RF porch. Ortiz hit 29 this season. He used to be a 35-40 guy. He's been passing drug tests since 2003. Ellsbury's spike is more suspicious if you ask me. Ortiz power is on the decline.

I think it is just a little strange that you would suspect Ortiz of PED use for not quite returning to the form of his prime. He had a really good season, but he was significantly better in his prime. Why don't you suspect Ellsbury for his power surge which came out of the blue?

He has to have a negotiating starting point. If he asks for 2 years, they will not even offer him 1 season with a player option. I'm still not sure what you don't trust about his performance. Is it his age that makes you think he can't sustain it? Are you going down the PED road again? If you look, his 2010 season wasn't too shabby. He had trouble with lefties, but he absolutely pummeled righties. If he is taking PEDs, why would he stop now? I'm sure that he would like to play for 3 or 4 years, so if he's juicing, he'll keep doing it. Again, I'm not sure what you don't trust. It's a little strange that Ortiz hit lefties better (that's the only improvement in his game) and you go down the PED path. Couldn't we do that with everyone who has a big year? Ellsbury had the most astounding breakout season, especially power-wise. Should we be suspect of him too?

Kalish is not ready for full time major league time. We need a righty bat to pair up with him. I don't see Lackey finishing next season. I see another s***ing of the bed and him being DL'd or DFA's before the All Star break. He's really slipped, and he never had ace stuff.

Nice shot of that girl picking her nose. She'll never live that down with her friends and family.:lol:

Unfortunately, Lackey will be on the team next season barring an injury in the offseason. We can pray. The Sox will say that he is ramping up his conditioning and modifying his diet and whatever else. He'll be said to be very serious about turning things around and yada yada yada, but the truth is he is a sinking ship taking on water very fast. I expect that he will give us less next season than the last two seasons. The Mets have a similar sinking ship-- Jason Bay. His head is so screwed up playing for the Mets that it is painful to watch. The Mets will try to salvage him like we will try to salvage Lackey. The Mets have been considering plans to lower and bring in the left field fence with the hope of reviving his career. I don't think it will work. Both lackey and Bay need a change of scenery. Put Lackey in the pitchers park in the NL and he might not be a total suck bag. Fenway and the Red Sox lineup could help Bay recover. We do need a RF. Bay has a terribly weak arm, but he could be an adequate stopgap. Maybe he could platoon with Kalish. It would be a bold wacky move, but neither team has anything to lose.